Graduation November 2017 - Red Belt
Sunday, November 12th - The Day Before I'm really excited, but at the same time, I'm not sure I'm ready for this. Red belt. Next is red stripe, then an extra semester of training, and the at the end of that semester, black belt test. I have three semesters left until that day (one semester at my TKD school is three months) - less than a year. Edit (November 16, 2017): I MIGHT BE ABLE TO TEST EARLIER THAN IN THREE SEMESTERS. MAYBE TWO. IF I TRAIN REALLY HARD, I CAN DO IT. Monday, November 13th - Graduation Day! Today had BETTER be a good day. Except for the day I got my white belt, and maybe my white stripe belt graduation day was good too . . . the majority of the days I've had a graduation have been awful nearly in their entirety, with the exception of the graduation itself. Even my brown stripe belt graduation - it was over the summer, so none of the awful people at school could ruin it, but that was the day I got some pretty bad news. The day itself was good, and the graduation was good, but the news was not good. That was the day Shogun told me he was leaving. My brown stripe belt is the last belt he gave me. So maybe that's the real reason part of me thinks I'm not ready for my red belt. I . . . don't want to let go of the memories. Shogun said, "those moments happened and no one can take that away from you", and that certainly made me feel better, but . . . it's just this is really all I have left of my old school? When I came to my new school they gave me a new uniform, despite them being in the same franchise as my old school, and my old uniform has a lot of meaning to me too. I still have it, by the way, and it's not in a box in the basement. I keep it on a shelf in my closet, with the bokken I bought forever ago for sword practice with Shogun. We actually have the same bokken. I don't know . . . I mean, I keep all of my old belts on a shelf too, and I see them every single day and they always remind me of the way things used to be. But my brown stripe belt . . . I'm just not ready to let go. I've passed all four tests needed to advance, I know my requirements, I'm physically ready for this . . . but . . . . . . it feels like I wasn't even a brown stripe belt for that long. I don't know. I want my red belt. I really do. Just . . . Anyway. So far nothing TERRIBLE has happened today . . . . . . Good LORD, today was horrible! I spent forever on my History essay, and I write every single day and have done so for five years, and my essay was written very strongly, and MY TEACHER GAVE ME A 1 OUT OF 6 FOR IT. GOOD LORD, LADY! WHAT DO YOU WANT IN AN ESSAY, FOR GOD'S SAKE??? WHAT ABOUT IT DID YOU HATE SO MUCH? I HAD STRONG ARGUMENTS! PLENTY OF EVIDENCE! STRONG WORDING! WHY DON'T YOU WRITE THE ESSAY YOURSELF, THEN??? My GOD, my teachers are irritating . . . Also, due to the extreme amount of stress I'm under and several other reasons, I spent more than half the class crying, but my teacher didn't even notice. "We're here for you." That has GOT to be the best joke I've ever heard. 10/10. This is one of the many reasons I'm glad TopKick exists - support. Teachers at school generally aren't very supportive. Some of them try, but they end up being more irritating and hurtful rather than helpful. I've had a few really awesome school teachers, but that's very rare, from my experience. TopKick instructors, on the other hand . . . oh my god, there's no one else more supportive than them! :D They're always awesome and they're always there for you and there's just no one more awesome than them! Reflection * Warm-up * Blocks/Strikes * Kicks/Strikes * Form * Self-defense * Belt ceremony Turns out, you can test for your black belt your first semester as a red stripe belt, if you train really hard. That means I could potentially be testing for my black belt in six months. I'm going to be training extra hard and I'm going to be eating super healthy, because I want my black belt more than anything! Congratulations to all our graduates this semester, and good luck to everyone testing for their black belts this Saturday!Category:Taekwondo Category:Taekwondo Journal Category:Graduation Category:2017 Fall Semester